§ 8. THE PAPAL OFFICE ASSAILED. 79
anointed and crowned by Leo. The oath the emperor takes to the pope is not the oath of fealty such as a vassal renders, but a promise to protect him and the Church. TlLe4)ope has no authority to depose the emperor. His only prerogative is to announce that lie is worthy of deposition. The right to depose belongs to the electors. As for Constantine's donation, it is plain Constantine did not confer the rule of the West upon the bishop of Rome, for Constantine divided both the West and the East among his sons. Later, Theodosius and other emperors exercised dominion in Rome. The notice of Constantine's alleged gift to Sylvester has come through the records of Sylvester and has the appearance of being apocryphal.
The papal assailants did not have the field all to themselves. The papacy also had vigorous literary champions. Chief among them were Augustinus Triumphus and AlvarusPelagius.i The first dedicated his leading work to John XXI L, and the second wrote at the pope's command. The modern reader will find in these tracts the crassest exposition of the extreme claims of the papacy, satisfying to the most enthusiastic ultramontane, but calling for apology from sober Catholic historians.^
1 For the papal tracts by Petrus de Palude and Konrad of Megenberg, d. 1374, see Riezler, p. 287 sqq. The works are still unpublished. Konrad's Tlanctus ecdesice is addressed to Benedict in these lines, which make the pope out to be the summit of the earth, the wonder of the world, the doorkeeper of heaven, a treasury of delights, the only sun for the world.
" Flos et apex imindi, qui totius esse rotundi JVectare didcorum conditiis aromate morum Orbis papa stitpor, claitsor cosli et reserator, Tu sidus claruviy thesaurus deliciarum Sedes sancta polus^ tu mundo sol modo solus.''''
2 Pastor, I. 85. Hergenrother-Kirsch, II. 757, complains that these two authors push matters beyond the limits of truth, "making the pope a semigod, the absolute ruler of the world." See Haller, p. 82 sq. Haller says it is a common thing among the common people in Italy for a devout man to call the pope a god upon earth, un Dio in terra. One of the smaller tracts already referred to is printed by Finke in Aus den Tagen, etc., LXIX-XCIX, and three others by Scholz, Publizistik, pp. 486-516. See Scholz's criticism, pp. 172-189. Finke, p. 250, is in doubt about the authorship.
80 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
Triumphus, anJtalia^bornhi^Ancon%Jl 243, made arch,bishop^fJNTazareth and died at Naples, 1328, was a zealous advocate of Boniface VIII. His leading treatise, JTl^g £myer of the, Cimrch, — Summa de potestate ecclesiastica. — vindicates John XXII. for his decision on the question of evangelical poverty and for his opposition to the emperor's dominion in Italy. i The pope has unrestricted power on the earth. It is so vast that even he himself cannot know fully what he is able to do.^ His judgment is the judgment of God. Their tribunals are one.^ His power of granting indulgences is so great that, if he so wished, he could empty purgatory of its denizens provided that conditions were complied with.*
In spiritual matters he may err, because he remains a man, and when he holds to heresy, he ceases to be pope. Council cannot depose him nor any other human tribunal, for the pope is above all and can be judged by none. But, being a heretic, he ceases, ipso facto^ to be pope, and the condition then is as it would be after one pope is dead and his successor not yet elected.
The pope himself may choose an emperor, if he so please, and may withdraw the right of election from the electors or depose them from office. As vicar^of Godj_he_ia_alKiye all kings and princes.
Th£_ Spaiiisl]LJ£ranci^^ji^Alvau^ was not always
as extravagant as his Augustinian contemporary.^ He was professor of law at PerugliL He fled from Rome at the approach of Lewis the Bavarian, 1328, was then appointed papal peni-
^ For edd. of Triumphus' tract, see Potthast, Bibl. Hist, uuder Triumphus. Riezler, p. 28(5, dates the tract 1324-1328, Haller, p. 83, 1322, Scholz, p. 172, 1320. See Poole, 252 sq.
2 Nee credo., quod papa possit scire latum quod potest facer e per potentiam stiam, 32. 3, quoted by Diillinger, Papstthum, p. 433.
' This famous passatje runs sententia pnpce sententia Dei una sententia est, quia umim co7isistorium est ipsius papce et ipsins Dei . . . cujus consistorii claviger et ostiarius est ipse papa. See Schwab, Gerson, p. 24.
* Totum purgatorium evnciiare potest, 3. 23. DolHnger, p. 451, says of Triumphus' tract that on almost every page the Church is represented as a dwarf with the head of a giant, that is, the pope.
5 He incorporated into his work entire sections from James of Viterbo, De regimine christiano, Scholz, p. 151.